'Hunger Games' Fans Confused By Presence of Black Actors in Film

A concerned fan of 'The Hunger Games' has opened a Tumblr blog to catalog the surprisingly rampant, racist outcry to the film's choice of African American casting for characters Rue, Thresh, and Cinna.

At Hunger Games Tweets you will find a collection of screen grabs from Twitter that reveal deplorable, ignorant reactions to the film's cast... and all from supposed readers of Suzanne Collins' trilogy on which the film was based.

As Jezebel notes, the books describe Katniss Everdeen as a young woman with black hair and olive skin, while Cinna's skin color is not described. Jennifer Lawrence was aptly cast in the role of Katniss, and thus dyed her hair a much darker hue. In a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, it's entirely feasible that the races we know now would be more integrated, with fewer minorities. Musician Lenny Kravitz, part African American, part Jewish, was cast as Cinna.

There's nothing said about either of these characters, but when it comes to the characters of young, meek Rue and the stronger, braver Thresh, the fans are showing no mercy. Many of the tweets are poorly spelled, grammatical nightmares, which suggests that we aren't dealing with the most intelligent people to begin with, but their blatant disregard of the books' description of Rue and Thresh as characters with dark skin along with their outright ignorance is astonishing.

Twitter

If you've ever skimmed channels in the evening and come face to face with Nancy Grace, you're familiar with her incessant reporting on missing or murdered children. Most -- if not all -- of these kids tend to be little white girls. There is very little fuss made when a minority child goes missing, and these tweets -- as pointed out by the owner of the blog -- highlight a very disturbing societal issue. One person in particular says that they cared less about Rue because she was black.

There are a few more tweets posted below, including one from a Twitter user who dispenses with any semblance of tact and goes right for the N-word. Perhaps most disturbing about this is that several of these Twitter users and fans of 'The Hunger Games' are young adults, causing one to wonder just what their parents are teaching them at home.

It's an unfortunate blemish on the otherwise mostly positive reaction front, especially since this is a film with a strong female character who serves as an excellent role model for young women. Someone tell these trendy kids that racism doesn't look good on anyone.